Andrew Breitbart wants ‘And now for something completely different, please’
As CPAC begins in the nation’s capital later this week, the conservative movement has much to contemplate as it attempts to reestablish itself as a dominant force in American political life.
Actually, “relevance” may be a more reasonable short-term goal.
The timing of the yearly Conservative Political Action Conference could not be better suited for evaluating the strategies of the standard bearers of free markets and limited government as free-spending and nanny statist Obamaism runs amok with nary a media check or a legislative balance.
Attendees of the wonky three-day forum should pay close attention to what their ideological counterparts had to say earlier in the week at their annual get-together in liberalism´s capital, Hollywood.
Breitbart points out,
The movie stars and the powerful creative minds congratulating each other Sunday night wield a greater role in shaping the political landscape than Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid combined. Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd and William Jefferson possess less power to sway the minds of the electorate than Brad Pitt, Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Kate Winslet and even the late Mr. Ledger (James Dean continues to sway the public imagination).
Yet the public relations protection received by elected Democratic officials from the Hollywood media collective – who incessantly mock traditional American values and attack by name their Republican counterparts – allows for the corrupt and the contemptible to pull the lever in perpetuity for any cause the Hollywood elite holds dear.
Unchecked, Big Hollywood´s lobbying power only continues to grow. Mr. Obama has David Geffen and Oprah Winfrey to thank for his presidency – ask Hillary.
What to do?
If “the medium is the message,” as Marshall McLuhan formulated 45 years ago in “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man,” then Hollywood-style liberalism is America´s current and future message. And conservatives have no one to blame but themselves for not investing their collective efforts in the pop cultural and the greater media experience.
Art, music, film and new media must be at the center of a reborn conservative movement. Hollywood should not simply be ignored, reviled and condemned by detached intellectuals, talk radio and elected officials caught in her crosshairs, but taken on head-on.
Breitbart is correct, but Dan Riehl is very skeptical, to put it midly:
It isn’t that I disagree with Breitbart. But in case he hasn’t noticed, the people he would prod to start launching movie studios and distribution networks haven’t even had the foresight and good sense to fund a single on line effort in the form of a group blog or some such in the past few years. They haven’t even managed to shift some small amount of dollars into advertising on Right-leaning blogs to at least encourage their best messengers in a new media age. Somehow I think the whole Hollywood thing is presently a real stretch.
Unless and until true capitalists who are conservatives are willing to come forwards, we will, as Breitbart said, be among the legions at CPAC rearranging the furniture.
I hope I’m wrong.
